Benutzer:Shi Annan/Gordon Muortat Mayen

Gordon Muortat Mayen Maborjok (1922–2008) was a South Sudanese veteran politician who was the President of the Nile Provisional Government (NPG) in Anyanya I; the first armed resistance to Khartoum which started in 1955. Muortat also served as Vice-President of the Southern Front (SF) and Foreign Minister in the Southern Sudan Provisional Government (SSPG).

Early life

Gordon Muortat Mayen was born in 1922 at Karagok village 10 miles South East of Rumbek. His father was a local chief of Patiop Clan of the Agar Dinka. Muortat was educated at Akot elementary from 1936-1942. He then attended Loka Nugent Junior Secondary School in Western Equatoria from 1942-1945. In 1951 he was among the first Southern Sudanese to graduate from Sudan Police College and was commissioned to police inspector where he rose through the ranks to become Chief Inspector of Police.

Political career

In 1957, Muortat was denied a transfer to the Southern Sudan, so he resigned his position and joined the Sudan Civil Administration. He was appointed assistant district commissioner and served in many places in the Bahr el-Ghazal and Upper Nile provincies. Under the transitional government of Prime Minister Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa, Muortat was appointed to be Minister of Works and Mineral Resources in his cabinet from April to July 1965. However, when Prime Minister Muhammad Ahmad Mahjub came to office, Muortat was dismissed.

In 1964, Gordon Muortat became one of the founders of the Southern Front (SF), and headed the Southern Front delegation in the Round Table Conference between the South and North in 1965, Muortat is remembered for demanding that the south be given the right to self determination. The great massacres of Juba, Wau and all over the South that were carried out by the Sudanese army in July 1965 frustrated and convinced Gordon Muortat that the Northern Arab rulers were not interested in the peaceful resolution of the South Sudan Question. Thus in August 1965 at the meeting of the Southern Front executive committee, he proposed that the party should be dissolved and that the entire committee should move into exile with the objective of merging with the Anyanya political and military wings. Muortat joined the Anya-Anya-1 insurgency in 1967 and was appointed foreign minister in the Southern Sudan Provisional Government (SSPG) under Aggrey Jaden. After the collapse of the SSPG due to internal political wrangling, the second Anya-Nya One government, the Nile Provisional Government (NPG), was formed with Gordon Muortat Mayen being elected unanimously as president, advocating for the complete independence of the South. Dr. John Garang de Mabior, future leader of the SPLA, was among one of the batches of Muortat's soldiers sent to Israel for military training under the NPG. The NPG was dissolved in 1970, after the failure to restore Israeli arms shipments to the forces. The weapons were now being diverted to Joseph Lagu who formed the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM) in January 1971. In an interview, Muortat, talking on the dissolution of the NPG stated, "I went to the bush in order to fight for the liberation of the South Sudan. And since Lagu had managed to secure arms for the liberation of our people, I did not see any reason to continue with a parallel struggle. So I decided to stand down. Because it is my belief that South Sudan cannot be liberated from the Arabs unless all of the Africans in the south united and fight as one people, for one goal, the independence of South Sudan". Shortly after, the SSLM under Joseph Lagu, entered peace negotiations with Khartoum to form the Addis Ababa Agreement. In 1971, Gordon Muortat was elected president of the African National Front, which was one of the southern factions that were against the Addis Ababa negotiations and did not actively participate in them, however they sent a clear message to negotiators on how proceedings could move. This included; that talks ought to be held between North and Southern true Representatives i.e. those mandated and not opportunists acting on complicity with the Arabs and their agents. Talks ought to take place without any pre-condition like the Arabs imposition of Local Autonomy. The talks ought to take place under the auspicies of impartial organisations like the UN or the OAU. The Arabs must know that what they are now committing in Addis Ababa will never help in defeating the Southern Sudan. However, despite this, the Addis Ababa peace agreement was singed in 1972. Gordon Muortat did not agree with the contents and terms of the agreement, calling it a sell out and fraudulent. He continued the protest against the agreement and remained in exile moving to the UK.

During the period of peace after the 1972 agreement, the former Ayna-nya rebels were absorbed into the Sudanese army, however many were discontented, and some chose to return to the bush in 1975 and headed to Ethiopia. In 1975, Gordon Muortat was elected President of the Anyanya Patriotic Front, a liberation movement with the same aims as SSPG, NPG and the first Anyanya; to liberate the South as a separate country from the North. The Ethiopian government agreed to station the mutineers in a camp called Bilpam, which later became the first full-fledged SPLA battalion in 1984. A BBC reporter dubbed the name Anya-nya Patriotic Front to Anya-nya two, knowing that the movement is the continuation of the first Anya-nya one movement, However, Muortat denounced the splinter group that became known as Anyanya II because they deviated from the original ideals of the APF.

As Muortat had predicted the Addis-Ababa agreement did not live long. Resource infringements and marginalisation of the South by the North led to increased unrest in the South. In 1983 President Gaafar Nimeiry declared all Sudan an Islamic state under Shari'a law, including the non-Islamic majority southern region, forcing southerners once again to take to the bush for the second struggle for the liberation of the Sudan, this time under Late Dr. John Garang.

In 1994 Gordon Muortat was appointed as Personal Advisor to the SPLM/SPLA Chairman Dr. John Garang de Mabior and a member of the National Liberation Council.

Later life and death

President Kiir at funeral of Hon. Gordon Muortat

In 2006 onwards, Muortat became an MP in the South Sudan Legislative Council representing his constituency in Rumbek. On 12 April 2008, Muortat died from natural causes while on a recess from parliament-having achieved so much in his life. He was very proud of the SPLA/M achievements especially that the road to the realisation of the Southerner's freedom was within sight. Gordon Muortat was given a state funeral and was laid to rest at Rumbek Freedom Square, attended by thousands of citizens who had come to pay their last respects to a man who was remembered by many as a freedom fighter and defender of the rights of the people of South Sudan. Notable speakers at the occasion were President Salva Kiir Mayardit, Abel Alier; former Vice President of the Republic of Sudan and President of the defunct High Executive Council for Southern Sudan, Isaiah Kulang Mabor, Madam Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, Mr. Andrew Makur Thou, Mr. Bona Malual, Mr. Clement Wani Konga and Mr. Daniel Awet Akot, then governor of Lakes State. In his address to the mourning citizens of the South Sudanese town of Rumbek, the President of the Republic of South Sudan, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, reminded the people of the selfless leader, who spent all his life struggling for the cause of the people of South Sudan. "It is now up to us, the present generation to transform Hon. Gordon's dreams into a reality, after achieving the Comprehensive Peace Agreement where the right to Self Determination for the people of South Sudan is enshrined," stated President Kiir. President Kiir declared 3 days of state mourning and all the flags in Lakes State fly at half mast.

In his memory, the Gordon Muortat Mayen Foundation has been set up, which seeks to help the people of South Sudan through various schemes and projects.